The Great Inka Road, a sacred network of roads 40,000 kilometers (nearly 25,000 miles) long, connected a confederation of more than 100 Native nations in six modern countries—Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru—and linked them to Cusco, the imperial capital. In 2014, UNESCO recognized this monumental achievement by including the Inka Road on the World Heritage list.

During the symposium, engineers, archaeologists, and other experts and scholars will discuss the political, economic, and religious ideas that enabled the Inka to consolidate power, and the communications, transportation, and agricultural infrastructure that made it possible for them to administer a vast and diverse empire.

The symposium and live webcast will be presented Thursday, June 25, from 1:30 to 5:30 pm, and Friday, June 26, from 9 am to 5:30 pm. Friday's program will feature Spanish-speaking scholars; live webcasts will be offered in Spanish and with simultaneous translation into English.

The webcasts will be archived on the museum's YouTube channel a bit later in the summer.